A great wrong is being done to an entire food culture when indigenous Nigerien foods are referred to as “famine food”, just because the West does not know them. When Hilary Andersson of the BBC came to Niger in 2004-05, her team filmed people eating leaves, and Ms Anderson concluded in her reports that they were suffering as they could not find anything else to eat. Eating cooked leaves was made out on the BBC to be an extraordinarily unusual behavior that only starving people would take to, and this is where I react strongly in opposition, for the fact remains that people in Niger love edible loves and use them as a base for the “sauce” which is to compliment the millet paste.

Now, famine food refers to something people will eat in the case of a famine, when there is nothing else to eat, whereas Nigerien leaves are eaten both in good and bad seasons. Different people have different preferences, and one leaf will be eaten in one part of the country and not in the other. That still does not qualify it as famine food.

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A particular favourite amongst the people of Tanout is the Maerua crassifolia leaves, also known as jiga, which is its Hausa name. At first pick, the leaves are bitter and contain a light toxin which disappears after cooking. When cooked properly, jiga leaves which are rich in proteins (15%), calcium and also contains iron, make an excellent meal.

I followed the Eden farmer’s traditional way of preparing jiga leaves, and made my own jiga soup in the solar oven.

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The jiga leaves were cooked out twice, and then crushed in a mortar (mine is a little bit smaller than the ones of the farmers’ but hey, as long as it’s working…).

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I then mixed the leaves with a little bit of stock, milk, some fresh garlic and an egg. Needless to say, I had a very nice tasting supper! For those of you who have never tried jiga before, the taste reminds of spinach (which is what inspired me to make a soup, as my Mom was always making a wonderful spinach soup) but the consistency is different. Jiga is rich in fibers, so for my next recipe, I will try making jiga bread!